


Shall We Dance (A Dance of Hate)

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Autistic Charlie, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Vampire Politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-09 22:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8915212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Charlie lives in a world of secrets. He is a vampire, cut off from humans for safety, but when he reached sixteen he decided he was sick of being isolated.His only problem? He shows up on the first day to find the heir to the rival coven of the area. Heir to the Andrzejewski family, Matteusz is just about Charlie's worst enemy. But everything is set to change...





	1. At the First

Charlie was starting to thoroughly regret his choice to insist on coming to college. He’d thought that, in the winter term at least, there wouldn’t be too much sun, but here he was and the sun was shining brightly. It hurt way too much and he didn’t understand why they weren’t allowed inside yet. He knew humans liked being outside, but he thought they were conscious of skin cancer. He’d thankfully thought to bring a coat with a hood, which he’d kept pulled up since he’d started the short walk from his house to the school. People were giving him odd looks, but frankly he couldn’t care less. He didn’t feel like burning today.

As soon as they were allowed inside, he pulled the hood back from his head. Now, people just looked past him. He supposed that none of them knew how important he was, so they didn’t respect or notice him. He wasn’t sure if that was a shame or not. It was probably a good thing. People would only stare if they knew who he was, and that got old after a while. Anonymity would have to do for now, until he gained a good reputation and people stared at him for a different reason.

No one seemed to want to talk to him, even as he went into the classroom with his ‘tutor group’. He didn’t like this. There were so many people here and none of them wanted to talk to him. And he had no idea how to politely start a conversation with people. He didn’t know their status or their correct business. It left him feeling rather strange. Charlie just took a seat and folded his arms neatly on the desk in front of him. More people kept hurrying into the room every so often, either alone or in twos and threes. Everyone was talking to other people, but no one was talking to him.

He sat alone until the teacher came into the classroom. She was tall and blonde and looked a fair amount like a typical member of his own kind, but he didn’t think that any of them actively engaged with humans at her age. She scanned them all, and her gaze locked on Charlie. She narrowed her eyes. Charlie shifted in his seat, feeling uncharacteristically uncomfortable. It had been a long time since he’d been glared at like that, and he couldn’t even work out why she hated him.

“Good morning,” she said. “Though I’m not sure how many of you actually want to be here. You don’t seem particularly keen.” Her eyes locked on Charlie again, and he uncrossed his arms. His tutors always used to say that it showed he had an attitude if he did that. She didn’t stop glaring at him, so he glared back at her. No one else seemed to have noticed their little contest of attitude, which Charlie was quite glad for. “I’m sure you all want to get down to talking to each other, but I have to give you all your timetables first. Let me know if there are any problems.”

And with that, she picked up the sheaf of paper sitting next to her and started to hand them out. “Is there a...Matt? Is Matt here?” There was no answer.

And then someone awfully familiar to Charlie burst into the room, apologising for his lateness, and Charlie was back into full-on glare mode. Not to the teacher anymore, but to the boy who had just walked in. The boy looked at him, and what Charlie imagined was a similar expression crossed his face.

Matteusz, the blundering, stupid idiot who couldn’t even waltz, came to sit down right next to him. Charlie immediately scooted his chair right to the edge of the desk, still surreptitiously looking at Matteusz. He’d never seen the other boy out of formal clothes, and he looked...well...different. He was wearing normal trousers and a denim jacket. And he looked normal (he looked much nicer when he was out of the fancy clothes). “Morning, Charles,” he said, and his smile was obnoxious.

“Andrzejewski,” he said, barely managing a grimace.

“Not even on first name terms?” Matteusz shot him a half-smile, raising an eyebrow. He was always obnoxiously charming. It infuriated Charlie. Why couldn’t he just be easy to hate like the rest of his family?

“Matteusz,” he said, and he managed to mimic Matteusz’s half smile. He’d never been quite as good as Matteusz at all this social stuff, but he could mimic what other people did. He was no good at taking the initiative, and Matteusz knew it.

“Thank you boys, now Matteusz, here is your timetable. Don’t be late again.” The teacher slapped a piece of paper down on the desk in front of him, and then stalked off to hand out more timetables to everyone else. 

“What is her problem?” Matteusz looked behind him, frowning at her retreating back. Well, he sounded the same as always and still had a superiority complex. It was only his fashion sense that had changed.

“I don’t see any problem. You were late,” he said. He glanced over at the sheet with Matteusz’s timetable on it. “Why do you have Polish lessons? You’re Polish.”

“What? I don’t- oh.” He sighed. “I am doing it as an A-level, but I do not need lessons in it. I will have it corrected.” He twisted around to catch the teacher’s attention, and she completely ignored him.

When she came over to Charlie to give him his timetable, he tried to catch her attention. “Excuse me miss, but Matteusz has lessons on his timetable he doesn’t need.” He glanced at his own and found that he was put in for Greek lessons. He didn’t need lessons in a language he was fluent in. “Oh, and so do I.”

The woman looked at them both disdainfully, then breathed a heavy sigh. “Alright, go down to the front office and get them sorted out.” And then, when they both looked at each other in vague disgust, she sighed. “Go on!” 

Matteusz looked at Charlie and shrugged, getting out of his chair. Charlie tried not to stare at him as he left the room before he followed. He didn’t want to walk anywhere near him while even remotely alone. The Andrzejewski family were notorious for being violent. 

Matteusz was waiting for him in the corridor. Of course he was. Charlie kept his distance, walking on the other side of the corridor, and then suddenly he realised something. He didn’t have a clue where he was going. He kept one eye on Matteusz as they walked. It looked like he didn’t know where they were going either. Wonderful. Their teacher was going to utterly hate them.

“Where are we?” He spoke through gritted teeth, and avoided making eye contact with Matteusz. As little interaction with him as possible would be preferable, even if fate seemed determined to push them together. 

“I thought you knew where we were going,” Matteusz said, looking just as annoyed as he sounded. “Surely you know where reception is, the know it all that you are.”

“Why would I know? I’ve never been there before!” Charlie stopped when he realised that he’d raised his voice, and hastily shut his mouth, glaring at Matteusz instead. He couldn’t be seen losing his cool like that in public.

“I forgot you were too much of a recluse to mingle with humans,” Matteusz said, making a turning into a different corridor. “Or was it that you still don’t have the necessary control to be in public places?”

“I have a lot more control than you do,” Charlie said, resisting the urge to snarl. “If students start going missing from here, I think we both know who will be to blame.” He pointedly knocked against Matteusz’s shoulder, stalking off ahead of him.

Fortunately, they were going in the right direction for the reception and he ended up there. “Hello,” he said, trying not to mess this up. He didn’t need to bow to humans, did he (he hoped he didn’t)? “I have Greek lessons on my timetable but Greek is my first language.”

The woman at reception looked at him, and for a moment he wondered if he’d done something wrong, but then she boredly asked for his name, which he supplied, and she went off to fix the mistake. Matteusz caught up to him, and Charlie turned his back on the boy. He didn’t want to talk to an Andrzejewski.

“There you go,” the woman at reception said. “I’ve removed you from three of those lessons a week but you still have to go to one. You still have the lesson third on Monday, but you can cross the others off your timetable.”

“Alright.” Charlie wandered to the side, listening as Matteusz gave a similar complaint and was given a similar answer. He wasn’t sure why he was waiting, but something told him that it was the right thing to do. He supposed it was certainly polite. He didn’t really feel it was necessary to be polite to Matteusz. They were political rivals at best and bitter enemies at worst.

“You didn’t need to wait,” Matteusz said, making Charlie sincerely regret waiting. 

“Excuse me for having some manners,” he said sharply. “We walked here together, don’t you know it would be rude to leave you alone? I suppose you wouldn’t know, would you, with the uncivilised state of your family…”

“Keep it down, would you?” Matteusz looked annoyed, glancing around to check if anyone was in hearing distance. “I don’t want my entire family to be forced into hiding because a wannabe genius child outed us.”

Charlie frowned. He was sure that the insults to his intelligence were unnecessary. “I apologise for my misconceptions in the area of the dynamics of my speech.”

“Have you ever heard another teenager speak?” Matteusz shook his head,and then walked on off ahead. Charlie rolled his eyes, checking his timetable for his first lesson. History. Finally, something enjoyable.


	2. A Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie almost falls asleep in history and then meets someone he actually likes.

And it was just his luck, wasn't it, Charlie mused as he entered the history classroom. Of course Matteusz was in this lesson too. Of course he had to put up with the most infuriatingly superior person when he was just trying to make something happen with his life. And, because he'd taken so long to walk there, the only damned seat left in the room was next to Matteusz. Of course. Charlie gave a disgusted sigh and sat down, resolving to move as soon as he could.

"Good morning, everyone!" Their teacher smiled at them all. Charlie didn't know what to think. She wasn't anything like his tutor when he used to do all his lessons at home.

A few people mumbled 'good morning' in response, but most stayed quiet. Charlie couldn't blame them. No one had any right to be so cheery at this early hour. He was barely able to be awake at this time, and he could only do it because he'd been training himself to be awake during the day since his parents agreed to let him come to college. If not, he'd be asleep right now. No doubt the tiredness brought on by being out in the light would just continue to get worse as time went on. But Charlie would deal with it, because he wanted to get through college.

He wanted this, but Matteusz being here made him want it less, because really he just wanted to be away from all the coven politics and expectations. That was what college was for, but all the rivalries had followed him here. It wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't seem to share at half their lessons. History, tutor, and presumably Physics too, if they shared the same tutor. He couldn’t believe his bad luck.

He tried to pay attention during the lesson, but most of it didn’t involve actual learning. His teacher seemed to want to explain the structure of the course and the exams rather than actually telling them about history.  
Eventually, Charlie’s tiredness got the better of him and he rested his head on his hand, letting out a long yawn. Maybe no one would notice if he just had a quick nap. This droning on about exams seemed to be never ending.

Matteusz poked him in the ribs, and he let out a squeak that he was pretty sure everyone in the class heard. He just about managed to stop himself from shouting at the boy for it. Idiot. Why would anyone even do that? Surely he was tired too. It would only be natural if he was. It was early for a human and late for a vampire.

He stretched his leg out under the table, finding Matteusz’s leg and kicking him quite hard. The resulting soft noise of pain was more than satisfying. That would teach him to mess with Charlie.

“Paying attention are we, boys?” The teacher looked over at them and Charlie ducked his head. He’d never been in so much trouble with his tutors in one day before. And it was only the start of the day at the moment. Everyone in the room was staring at him and he hated it.

With a slightly sheepish smile, Charlie nodded and then resumed resting his head on his hand and gazing off into space. How did humans manage to be up this early? It was just unreasonable. He hoped Matteusz felt the same. It was humiliating just how difficult it was, and if Matteusz didn’t feel the same way then it was a personal flaw of his own, not one that was universal (which meant it was the fault of the humans).

The teacher continued with the boring lesson for over half an hour before saying something he actually needed to hear. The textbook for the course and a list of extra reading if they wanted to get ahead was practically a gift from above. Charlie would purchase all of the extra reading and likely breeze through it all in a day or two, because human literature had never posed much of a challenge for him. No literature had, honestly. His parents had always called him a genius.

“Well, it’s five minutes until the end of the lesson, so you can go early. There’s not much I can teach you within such a short space of time. Go and take a nap before your next lesson, because clearly some of you need it.” She was looking at him again and he could feel his face burning. He couldn’t control being so tired, and he couldn’t take a nap because if he went to sleep during the day he would not wake up until night had fallen.

He left the room as fast as he could, hoping that Matteusz wasn’t going to follow him. Charlie really didn’t understand the other boy’s obsession with staying close to him and being as irritating as possible. What did he want? “Try not to drop off,” Matteusz said. The smug smile on his face was almost unbearable. “If you do, I might just say you need to go outside for some fresh air, and then where would you be?”

In bed for the next week would probably be the answer. He was not good with sunlight and prolonged exposure would make him very ill, he imagined. “Don’t you dare,” he said, baring his teeth at Matteusz after checking no one was around.

“Those are not scary,” Matteusz said flatly. He was still doing that infuriating grin, the one that Charlie didn’t hate half as much as he wanted to. “Anyway, you can hardly threaten me. Would not do you much good to bite me.”

“Please just tell me that you don’t do English Literature,” he said. It wouldn’t do either of them any good to exchange threats here. They were in a public place and it would make them look bad. Thankfully, Matteusz shook his head.

“I’m not pretentious,” he said. “I take real subjects. I imagine you do Maths, though, so I’ll see you later. Try to arrive on time so you don’t have to sit next to me.”

“You’re hilarious,” Charlie said dryly. “Please stay away from me from now on.” Might as well be blunt about what he wanted. No point in getting Matteusz’s hopes up about the chances of a lasting friendship. 

He didn’t like Matteusz and he wasn’t meant to. The whole point was that they hated each other, that was why Charlie was here. He was here to escape from the politics of the covens, to escape that perception of people that he had to have before he even met them. He hated having to live up to expectations, but then the reason that the expectations were upheld had followed him here.

His timetable said that it was breaktime now, so Charlie went to go and sit in one of the large seating areas. Alone. A couple of people wandered in his general direction, and then wandered away again. Clearly, he looked unapproachable. Oh well. If those people wanted to be friends with him then they’d just have to get over being timid (ignoring that he himself was too afraid to approach those people in case they saw him for who he was).

Giving up on anyone coming to speak to him, he grabbed a book from his bag and started to read. He’d read this book, one of their English texts, twice already, but he felt like he should know it from beginning to end before he could study it. How would he be able to answer thematic questions without knowledge of the book itself? And besides, reading would keep him awake and he desperately needed that right now. He was far too tired. 

About half an hour later, there seemed to be a general hustle and lots of talking, and Charlie looked up from his book to find everyone else getting up and leaving. Time for another lesson, and finally one without Matteusz in it.

It was much more interesting than the other lesson he’d been in, partly because Matteusz wasn’t in it, but mostly because the teacher was actually teaching. The moment they got in she asked them what they’d thought of the books they’d been asked to read over the summer. He was far too tongue-tied to answer properly, he found it difficult to talk freely around even his English tutor, but it was nice to listen to other people.

The girl who had sat next to him in that lesson was nice, too. April, she said her name was, and she was human and very cheerful. Almost obnoxiously so, but not quite. She made for far better company than one of his lifelong enemies. She was very talkative and didn’t even seem to mind that he was a bit quiet and didn’t really know how to talk to humans. He almost thought about asking her, but that would probably count as revealing that he wasn’t the person he may appear to be to humans, so he couldn’t do that. But April didn’t really mind, clearly she was just happy to talk constantly about anything and everything that came to mind about books. She also said she was in his tutor group. He hadn’t noticed her earlier. He hadn’t really noticed anyone except Matteusz though, so that was no big deal.

At the end of the lesson, Charlie found himself being invited to sit with April for lunch. He didn’t exactly eat food, which might be a problem. Maybe he could just say he wasn’t hungry. He was, actually, he was very hungry, and it was particularly fortunate that April was wearing far too much perfume, so she just smelt artificial. He probably shouldn’t think about whether she would taste nice.

April ended up offering him an apple when he said he didn’t have any lunch, and no amount of insistence that he wasn’t hungry would make her back down. So Charlie had a few bites of apple, and just about managed to keep it down. Barely.

“It’s okay, you didn’t have to give this to me,” he said. He couldn’t believe that April had apologised for the apple not being to his tastes. “I’m not very hungry, sorry.” He didn’t think that humans ate food that other people had just bitten into, so he put the apple down on the table. He’d only managed two bites before he felt the acid rising into his mouth.

April seemed rather concerned at his inability to eat much food, but mercifully she didn’t say anything about it. She just shrugged and got on with her own lunch, chatting to Charlie about her life. He couldn’t think of much to say in return, for obvious reasons. He couldn’t tell her the truth, and there were so many other things that would make him look really strange if he said it. He mentioned that he’d never been to school because he was tutored and that his parents had quite a lot of money (he didn’t say how much), which April found interesting.

“I’d presumed you went to a private school before,” she said. “Because of the way you speak.”

“The way I…” Charlie trailed off then, remembering that most humans found his manner of speaking to be a little old-fashioned. “Oh. Yes. My whole family speaks like this,” he explained, smiling in an absent sort of way. If he did that, she’d underestimate him. That’s what they all had the tendency to do.

“Do you have siblings, then?” She asked. It took Charlie a moment before he realised that human adults would have multiple children and that families didn’t translate entirely into covens.

“No,” he said. “But my family is large. I have a lot of...cousins.” That seemed like the closest word he could use that also sounded acceptably human. And it was mostly true, anyway. He did have a very large ‘family’.

“Are you related to the boy who came in late, then?” April asked. “You knew him, but you don’t look anything alike.” Apparently humans were more perceptive than Charlie usually gave them credit for, which was very concerning.

“No!” He’d probably said that a bit too fast, and definitely a bit too loud, but never mind. He’d certainly gotten his feelings across, and he hoped that April would get the hint and not ask him to say any more on the matter. “We’re...I do know him.”

April laughed. She didn’t understand how serious he was being, then. “Okay. You didn’t say anything about the book earlier. Did you read it over the summer?” Charlie let out what he hoped was a not obvious sigh of relief. He didn’t want to talk about Matteusz any more than he had to. The conversation swiftly moved on to talking about books, something Charlie was far more familiar with, and he found himself relaxing a little. If only everyone here could be a decent person like April was, then he might actually enjoy himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *makes up a bunch of vampire culture* I'm sorry that this isn't all that interesting and Class fics don't get many hits anymore but. I will sustain this fandom if it is the last thing I do.
> 
> (Aka every time I try to look for Pokemon or Legend of Zelda fics there isn't anything good so I cri every time)


	3. Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie gets home, exhausted.

When Charlie got home, no one was up. That wasn’t surprising- he didn’t really want to be up, either. He wandered through the dark corridors of his house to his bedroom, slumping down into bed with a groan. He likely wouldn’t get that many hours of good sleep, but at least he could get something. He seriously doubted he’d be able to sleep through the night entirely, but he’d try. He couldn’t do anything but try.

He slept for nine hours, almost nine hours exactly, finding that he woke up at two in the morning. Not exactly ideal, but it was later than when he’d managed to sleep yesterday. By the time he’d reached college, he’d already been up for nine hours because he’d been too nervous to go back to sleep.

He went up to the study he shared with Violet to see if he could order those books and found that she was there, doing some work. She ignored him, which was usual. He may have been the heir to the family, but to her, he was just an annoying kid who wanted to meet humans. Most of the other inhabitants of this house thought of him like that. His desire to meet humans was something bizarre, like wanting to go and talk to dogs or something. Charlie just...had a rather scientific curiosity about them, when they weren’t food. There was something interesting and alien about them. It was like they weren’t real, yet they still managed to control almost every aspect of his life. He wanted to know why, but he supposed he also had a desire to prove that he could succeed in their world without the assistance of his parents. They gave him everything he had in this world. People said he could be anyone and still have a good life. He wanted to prove that he could do something without the status his parents held.

Charlie headed back out of the study and went downstairs instead, finding his parents sitting together and discussing something-or-other. He waved politely and smiled at them, and they did the same, and then he walked on. He was absolutely starving. He hadn’t planned where he was going to go today, which meant he should probably go to the woods and just have an animal instead. He didn’t mind rabbits or deer, so that could be okay, but at this time of year there were mostly birds around, which was no good. Maybe there would be a human wandering around the paths. He’d have to wait and see. 

Outside, the night was freezing cold, but Charlie didn’t mind it. He was well used to temperatures like this, and so he didn’t even bother with a coat. There were woods close to his house, quite small ones, but full of wildlife. No one would notice that anything was missing if a few animals died. And they would, because unlike humans they never had enough blood in them for two helpings. Which meant Charlie would probably get blood all over his shirt and his parents would be a little annoyed, but that was why they had cleaners.

It didn’t take too long to find a deer, which was fortunate because Charlie was famished. He really, truly hadn’t realised just how difficult it would be to be around lots of humans who mostly smelt palatable. If it went on like this, he would have to feed every night.

When he was done, he checked his watch and made his way back to the house. 4am. About four hours before he needed to leave for college, then. Four hours and nothing to do. No homework, and he didn’t have any of those extra books yet. What could he do with four hours? He could attempt to sleep again, or do some reading on something he was interested in. He could make a note of what all his topics were for history so he could check on those and research them before they came up in the lessons. 

The coming day was Thursday, and he would have had a double session of Greek, but they’d taken it off his timetable. He didn’t know what to do with the rest of the time. Maybe he could go back to sleep and then sleep through the first two hours of college, too. But then he’d never fix his sleep schedule so he could stay awake through college. This was all ending up a lot more complicated than he’d thought that it was going to be.

Charlie was startled out of his thoughts by a knock at the door, and when he opened it, it was his mother. That was a rare sight- she didn’t often grace him with her presence voluntarily. “Ah, I, come in, mother, you can sit down...somewhere.” He looked around his room with a slight amount of dismay. There was only one seat with space to sit down because he’d stacked school supplies everywhere else.

She came in and sat down in the singular seat, leaving Charlie to stand a little awkwardly with his hands clasped behind him and his back perfectly straight. “Is there...anything you wished to speak to me about, mother?”

“I wanted to ask you how your day went,” she said. She was clearly expecting him to say that it was terrible. It had been terrible, but he had enough confidence that it would get better that he would lie to her for now.

“It was interesting,” he said, as if they’d done any work in any of the lessons. “Though the heir to the Andrzejewski family is in most of my lessons.”

“That...boy?” His mother frowned, curling her lip in disgust. “I should complain. I don’t want you spending more time with him than is absolutely necessary…” She shook her head, sighing. “Well, I’m afraid you’ll be seeing him outside of school as well. There’s a ball on Friday.”

Charlie did his best to conceal a sigh. He had initially hoped that going to college would mean that he didn’t get his schedule rearranged around events so he had to go to every single one, but of course they’d just organise the balls on a night where he could do it. “I don’t think you can complain about who is in my classes without a perceivable human reason.”

“What do these humans count as an acceptable reason?” Charlie just shrugged in answer to that, because that was something he hadn’t researched. Had he known that Matteusz would be in his classes, perhaps he would have done. Now, though, it was a little too late. “Make sure you’re ready for the ball on Friday. It probably won’t start until midnight, but I know you slept in a little today. If you have to miss school on Friday to be awake for the ball, make sure you do so.”

“Okay. Thank you, mother.” Ideally, he wouldn’t have to miss college, but he happily would if it became necessary. There was only so much of Matteusz that he could handle in one day, that much was for sure.

She left him alone soon after, which didn’t surprise him at all because she never had anything to say to him unless it was to do with politics. He loved her, sure, and he knew she cared for him, but their relationship wasn’t the sort that humans had with their offspring. He was very valuable to his parents simply because he was their child, but otherwise he may as well be part of the coven.

Charlie flipped through the information he’d been given from college, and then lay back down in bed. He had an alarm set on his phone to wake him up at eight, and he was hoping to snatch a little more sleep, or at the very least, some rest. If every day would be as exhausting as today, he was going to need it.


	4. Ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie suffers through the rest of the week.

The rest of the week passed in some sort of blur of exhaustion, irritation and a faint sense of loneliness. Charlie had come in on Thursday intending to talk to April, and had found her already talking to another girl. He didn’t want to intrude, so he’d left them to it, and the same thing had happened every time he’d tried to talk to April for the rest of the week. She’d clearly found someone better to talk to, a human who was just as smart as him (he’d seen her in Maths and Physics, she was very very smart for a human), and she didn’t need him anymore.

Lessons were hard too. He had three of his four lessons with Matteusz, and in two of those lessons they sat next to each other. The subjects themselves were very easy, but so much emphasis was put on concentrating on what the teacher was saying and then talking about it in groups, and he was too tired to do the former and too nervous to do the latter. At least he managed to do his homework, and he didn’t have to skip college on Friday. He did, however, nap during lunch.

He hadn’t meant to, really. It had just happened that he was incredibly tired and trying to fight off hunger, and the only way he could think of to restore his energy that didn’t involve a massacre in the canteen was taking a nap. He’d nestled himself comfortably on a large beanbag in a fairly quiet area, and just closed his eyes. It had been absolutely blissful, at least until he had woken up to Matteusz shaking him awake.

“Wake up,” he said sharply. Charlie jumped. That was unnecessary. He was sleeping and he’d set an alarm to wake himself up five minutes before he had to go to the lesson. He didn’t need anyone to get him up, least of all Matteusz. “Okay, you’re awake. The sun is shining in through that window because it’s afternoon.”

“I didn’t need you to wake me up,” he snapped, and then became aware of a very faint vibration that was being muffled by the beanbag he lay on. Apparently his phone alarm was going off, and he had been totally unaware of it. Oh. “I have a lesson to go to now, so please excuse me. I’ll see you later.”

“Yes, you will,” Matteusz said, “because we’re going to History, where we sit next to each other, remember?” Charlie sighed. He was far too drowsy to put up with Matteusz for an hour. But he had to, it seemed, so he struggled up and reached to find his buzzing phone. 

Later, he fell asleep almost the moment he got home. For a formal event, he had to be his best, and he absolutely couldn’t be exhausted. College lessons were exhausting, and they were doubly so when Matteusz was there, and the ball would be even worse. He fully intended to sleep all weekend. Possibly even literally all weekend. He was so tired.

But he struggled out of bed and made himself look presentable, smoothing down his hair and pulling on some decent formal clothes. If nothing else, he at least had to look like he’d made more of an effort than Matteusz. That usually wasn’t too difficult, because Matteusz struggled with looking presentable all the time. He wore clothes that were far too pale and he had a fondness for blue that just did not match his eyes. He also could not dance to save his life, which made making him look like a buffoon incredibly easy. All Charlie had to do was ask him to dance, and watch him flail like a fish out of water. 

With that thought firmly in mind, he strode out of his room and headed downstairs, where he could already hear the faint sound of music coming from the hall. He wasn’t late, he just hadn’t bothered to arrive early. His parents rather liked to get things going at least half an hour early just to make all the guests feel inferior. It made them feel out of place and rude for even showing up in the first place. It worked. 

To Charlie’s irritation, Matteusz was one of the few guests that was already there, along with a few more members of his family. He shot Charlie a grin from across the hall, an expression that was absolutely not reciprocated. But, because he’d been acknowledged, he would have to go over and talk to him. Joy of joys.

“Good evening,” he said, approaching the group of Matteusz’s family. As per usual, there were no general coven members at the ball, just family members. Coven vampires weren’t nearly as important as him or Matteusz.

“Evening.” Matteusz reached out then, patting at the side of his head. “Your hair was sticking up. Were you asleep?” Charlie glared at him, refusing to dignify that frankly impertinent question with an answer. “I wouldn’t blame you after this afternoon. You seemed to be a stranger to doing work in lessons.”

“Humans aren’t the best of teachers.” Charlie would admit that much; he was disappointed by the quality of human teaching, though often it seemed as if the students were more to blame for the slow pace and lack of challenging content. “I’m sure you agree.”

Matteusz just shrugged, the gesture far too infuriatingly casual for a formal event like this. Charlie didn't know who had taught him to behave this way, but they didn't seem to have been very good teachers. Matteusz’s formal manners were appalling. You would almost think he was simply a member of the Andrzejewski coven rather than the family that headed it, but it would be horrendously rude to suggest so. Charlie would never dream of saying it, especially not at an event hosted by his parents. “Perhaps it just goes over your head,” Matteusz suggested.

“I’ll have you know I was studying more difficult things than this when I was ten years old,” Charlie said sharply, fighting to keep his temper. He took a deep breath, then just smiled at Matteusz. “Shall we continue this conversation on the dance floor?”

“I’m afraid I would rather not,” Matteusz said, with the sort of smile that told Charlie he knew that he looked silly when dancing. “Unlike some of us, I came here straight from a full day of lessons and spent a little while too long in the sun around humans. I’ve been instructed not to dance without properly eating first.” 

“What a shame. I do hate to miss an opportunity to see your...wonderful dancing.” Charlie wondered if the sarcasm lacing his tone could be any more obvious than it already was.  
“I hate to miss an opportunity to dance,” Matteusz said. “I do enjoy it, and I particularly enjoy dancing with you.” Charlie hoped he had just imagined the wink from Matteusz. No one was meant to know anything about That.

“I’m flattered,” Charlie said, trying to sound unenthusiastic. He was not half as disinterested as he wanted to sound, honestly, and he hated it. Matteusz had better not know about his...particular tastes in romantic partners. And if he did know, he’d better not tell anyone. Vampires only had one child, ever. And if he didn’t marry a woman and have a child with her, that would be the end of the family line. His parents wouldn’t get another shot at continuing the family. There would be a dead end, and his family would be doomed to one day be resigned to antiquity. These were thoughts that he preferred not to consider, but sometimes he just couldn’t help it. Charlie frowned a little to himself, knowing that Matteusz would be able to read the uncertainty on his face.

“I’m glad,” Matteusz said, and Charlie hated how genuine Matteusz managed to sound when all of this was just an act. He hated it. Why couldn’t they all be open about their hatred for each other? “If we’re both hungry, perhaps we should go and find something to eat together.”

That sounded good. That sounded very good, in fact. It was rare that Charlie had ever felt as hungry as he had been since he’d started college. The only problem was that hunting with Matteusz would no doubt get a little awkward. But he was starving. “Alright. Now?”

“If your parents won’t mind too much,” he said. “We’re off trying to out-manipulate each other, you can say, and I doubt it will be too far from the truth.”


	5. Feeding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matteusz and Charlie go out to find something (someone) to eat.

At just past midnight, there weren’t too many people out. A few adults and a few probably-drunk teenagers heading home from parties, or wherever else human teenagers went to get drunk. From what Charlie had heard, they went just about anywhere that would serve them alcohol. Alcohol in the blood made for a strange and slightly heady taste to the meal, and Charlie wasn’t sure if he’d manage to walk straight after draining enough to satisfy him, but it didn’t matter. He was starving.

Matteusz walked next to him, both of them waiting for a pair of humans to go off by themselves, away from the light and possible intrusion of other humans. For a while, no one came by, and Charlie found his eyes occasionally flicking up towards Matteusz’s face. That was bad, very bad, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking.

“I don’t really like biting them,” Matteusz said, looking over to where a group of five human teenagers were stumbling around. “What did they ever do to us?”

“They don’t let us live openly,” Charlie said, though he often wondered why himself. Obviously he preferred drinking human blood, but he also liked animal blood. He was just saying what his parents told him, because they were still enemies.

“If someone went around trying to eat you, would you be happy to let it live freely?” Matteusz frowned down at Charlie, and Charlie shot an equally intense expression back at him. This was a battle of wills that Matteusz would not win. Humans were simply inferior- feeding from them was like how they ate cows.

Fortunately, he saw a distraction. Two human girls, one stumbling and the other holding her upright, were making their way to a path away from the main road and the rest of their group. They were all saying some very noisy goodbyes, so Charlie put a finger against Matteusz’s lips and indicated the two of them. Matteusz squinted and frowned, but didn’t say a word.

Charlie slipped from one patch of shadows into the next, keeping a close eye on the girls. There was something oddly familiar about at least one of them, but he couldn’t quite place it. And it didn’t matter right now, not when he was this hungry. He couldn’t tell humans apart when he was hungry. And when he caught the scent of their blood, he found his eyes almost clouding over. He was so hungry.

As soon as one of the girls passed, he pounced, leaping out of the shadows and right into her path. He caught her eyes for a moment before pulling them away. There was something familiar here, but it didn’t matter. Something smelt familiar too, but not familiar enough to be anyone he spent time with at college or anything. He pulled the girl’s hands behind her back and brushed her hair away from the side of her neck, ready to bite down.

And then someone jumped on him, dragging him to one side and shoving him back against the floor. Charlie struggled to stand up, to fight back, but the girls were already long gone. He looked blearily around for his attacker, eyes narrowing when he saw Matteusz. “What was that for?”

“That was April,” Matteusz said. “She is in our Physics class and our tutor group. I saw you talking to her on Wednesday and did not think you wanted to leave her in an alley on the verge of death.” Charlie blinked.

“She wasn’t wearing her perfume,” he said. Of course he hadn’t recognised her scent; she always smelt so artificial, like fake flowers, but it must have faded at some point during the night.

Matteusz glared at him, muttering something that sounded like an insult in Polish. Charlie glared right back. “We still need to find food,” he insisted. “Somewhere. You cannot go back to the party this in need.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. He was surprised at how much he meant it. He’d never apologised to an Andrzejewski before, but he felt so bad about Matteusz having to stop him from biting his only friend.

“Good. Let’s just go to the woods.” Matteusz walked off, leaving Charlie to follow. He did. Now did not seem like a good time to try and argue with Matteusz- frankly, he seemed a little angry.

Charlie couldn’t blame him. He couldn’t believe what he’d just done. He had almost attacked April. The only person who was anywhere close to a friend and he’d just...he hadn’t even recognised her. Matteusz had recognised her, but he hadn’t. He didn’t deserve to be called her friend. Wandering along behind Matteusz, he was quiet, no longer in the mood to taunt the other boy about anything. He was just lucky that April was safe, that Matteusz had been there with him. He...probably owed Matteusz some sort of debt now, which disgusted him just a little. His family were meant to be the most powerful vampire family in the area, but now...Matteusz might hold that debt over him for the rest of his hopefully eternal life. This was an absolute disaster and he could not believe it was happening.

Now alone in the dark streets that were slowly bleeding away into woodland, Charlie felt like Matteusz could say anything to him. They couldn’t take any of what had happened here back to the party. Their parents would never let either of them go back to college if they knew a classmate had seen them.

“Thank you,” he said quietly. “For not letting me bite April.” Charlie felt almost dirty, giving his thanks to Matteusz, but maybe if he said it now then there would be less of a debt to repay later. Matteusz didn’t seem like an especially conniving type- Charlie doubted he would use this incident much to his advantage.

“I did not want you to do it,” Matteusz said. “It wasn’t something I did for you. I did it for me.” Charlie didn’t know how to say anything more. There wasn’t really anything to say. Matteusz clearly didn’t care about what he thought, at least that was what it seemed like he was saying.

“Okay. I appreciate it anyway,” Charlie said firmly. A rustle of movement in the trees caught his attention, and he nudged Matteusz to alert him as well. All thoughts about April were quickly cast aside in favour of the promise of more food.

Hunting was quick and silent. Charlie had to settle for two birds to quench his hunger along with the rest of his meal, so he was stuck picking feathers out of his teeth for the whole of their walk back. It was worth it, though. He didn’t think he’d ever been that hungry before, especially after he’d been denied the prospect of a human meal.

Matteusz had had better luck, and he strolled back to the party fairly contentedly at Charlie’s side. Charlie tried not to be infuriated by how smug he looked, or how satisfied. Somehow, those expressions suited him. Matteusz really was an impressive person, and his control over his actions was far better than his own. He didn’t know anyone with that much restraint while hunting, at least not someone his age. And he was always so collected, even when they argued during lessons. Maybe he needed to work a little harder on himself if he ever wanted to be a great head of family. For all of Matteusz’s flaws, and Charlie felt assured when he said that there were many of those, he was alarmingly good at what he was supposed to be good at. All of the stuff that mattered, anyway. No one really cared about dancing.

“Would you join me in a dance, Lord Andrzejewski?” Charlie asked, a small smile on his face. Matteusz should have the energy to do it now, and he would much rather forget that any debt he owed Matteusz existed. And the best way to do that, obviously, was to try and have fun at one of these things for once.

“I am a lord now?” Matteusz smiled at him in a far less patronising way than usual, linking his arm with Charlie’s and stepping out onto the dance floor.There were an awful lot more people here now, people who Charlie probably ought to greet at some point. But...not yet. Now, he had a dance to lead the least elegant vampire in Europe through.


	6. Next

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Charlie goes back to college the next week, things have changed.

On Monday, Charlie smiled at April as he walked into Physics. April froze, then smiled back and hastily turned away. Charlie frowned. He could have sworn that she hadn’t seen his face when he’d almost bitten her, and she had probably been almost as drunk as that friend she’d been half-carrying.

“I think she knows,” he muttered to Matteusz, who was already there. Early for once, it seemed. “She seems afraid.”

Matteusz looked up and then glanced towards April, who was pointedly not looking towards them. “Maybe you remind her of you,” he said. “I doubt she really remembers anything if she saw it, but father says that we have a unique impression on humans. She can feel that from us.”

Charlie was reluctant to trust anything said by Matteusz’s father, but still, it seemed to hold true. “Well, that’s great,” he grumbled. “My only friend won’t talk to me. Fantastic.” He sighed, slumping down a little in his chair.

“I was under the impression you didn’t have any,” Matteusz said. “You’re no more social here than you were before you could speak.” And, honestly, Matteusz was probably right. He’d barely spoken to April more than twice ever, she probably didn’t consider him to be a friend.

“And saying things like that is the reason I’m not friends with you,” Charlie said sharply. “Would it really pain you that much to try being polite to me for once, or do you have some kind of allergy to being a decent person?”

“I was going to suggest that maybe you could talk to me,” Matteusz said, “to give the illusion that you had at least one friend. But maybe it would be better if you just stayed to yourself. That way you’re not openly being an arse.”

“You would lower yourself to talking to me?” Charlie frowned. “I thought I was beneath the mighty Lord Andrzejewski, or at least that’s what you’ve told me yourself on more than one occasion. Or, perhaps, are you just as lonely and in need of a friend as I am?”

“Actually, I have friends,” Matteusz said, and the way he was smiling showed Charlie that he was probably telling the truth. It wasn’t really in the boy’s nature to lie, he would rather just insult people and make a fool of himself.

“Hmm. Human friends? Once again lowering yourself, I see.” Charlie didn’t point out that he was currently in a mood over April, who was decidedly human, and he hoped that Matteusz wouldn’t point it out either.

Thankfully for his reputation and the ability to have the last word in the argument, Miss Quill walked into the room, silencing everyone inside. It was time for Physics, again, and though Charlie knew he would understand without concentrating, his teachers didn’t know that. 

At breaktime, Charlie was distracted from his book by someone suddenly flopping down beside him. He looked up and saw Matteusz, and sighed. He’d sprawled himself quite insistently next to Charlie, most of his left arm pressed up against Charlie’s side. Charlie shifted away. Matteusz moved a little closer.

“You can sit, but please don’t touch me,” Charlie said, and then he went back to his book. If Matteusz wanted to follow him around like some domesticated dog then he was free to do so. Charlie couldn’t stop him. But he would stop him from invading his space.

“Why not? Surely there are worse people who could be touching you.” Matteusz rested his head on Charlie’s shoulder, and Charlie glared at him. “I could be a girl, for example. You would probably like that less.”

Charlie just glared at him some more and pulled his shoulder away, letting Matteusz fall a little with a faint sound of alarm before he managed to correct himself. “We cannot speak of that,” he said. “I do not know how you are aware of it and I-” actually, he did care how Matteusz knew, so he couldn’t say that, “I do not want to discuss it any further.”

“Fine.” Matteusz sat up straight, looking for all the world like a normal person and not the single most annoying thing in Charlie’s life. “All I wanted to know was whether you would like to sit with me so you do not look like you have no friends.”

“I thought you were sitting with me,” Charlie said. If they didn’t look friendly already, he didn’t want to think about how Matteusz would act when he was pretending they really were friends. “I have no issue with what other people think of the status of my interpersonal relationships.”

“Maybe I care what people think of you, my oldest acquaintance.” Charlie was about to protest about that, but Matteusz was right about the oldest acquaintance part. They’d been seeing each other since they were in nappies. Matteusz was the first person he’d ever tried his teeth on (no matter that Matteusz had injected him with actual venom and had knocked him out for two days in return).

“Well they don’t know that. They’re just humans, I don’t care about what they think.” Matteusz caring about humans would make an incredible sensitive topic of conversation at a diplomatic event. “Do you think humans are significant?”

“A little more significant than most seem to think,” Matteusz said firmly. “Without them, we would not exist.” He had a point, but Charlie wouldn’t admit that. He didn’t want to make any concessions to Matteusz, ever.

“But are their opinions relevant in any way?” Charlie asked. “You do not need to sit with me. There is no need for you to change what they think about me, because I do not care and you don’t need to.”

“Perhaps I want to sit with you. Did you ever consider that?” Truthfully, Charlie had not. He couldn’t think of a single reason on this earth why Matteusz would want to sit anywhere even twenty feet away from him. They hated each other. They always had and they definitely always would. Just as their parents had always hated each other, and their grandparents had for some time too. They weren’t meant to or expected to like each other at any point.

“No, and I have no idea why I would,” he said. He didn’t want to talk to Matteusz any longer than he had to.

“Well, I want to sit with you.” Matteusz shrugged. “I know you better than any of these humans do. None of them know that you like--” Charlie cut him off there with a furious glare, and Matteusz only grinned at him.

“I said don’t,” he said. He hated even thinking of it, because it reminded him that he was a complete failure and always would be. He could never serve his family or coven in the way he was expected to. Someone else would head the coven instead.

“It is okay,” Matteusz assured him. “If your family actually care about you, they will not mind.” Charlie snorted. Matteusz knew nothing, because they would mind. They would mind very much. “My family don’t really care about me.”


	7. Flirting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matteusz and Charlie spend a little time together after a disaster of a lesson.

Over the course of the week, Matteusz kept sitting himself down next to Charlie. Sometimes he would tease, sometimes he would be nice, sometimes he would sit and comment occasionally on the book that Charlie happened to be reading. It was incredibly annoying at first, because Matteusz was just so...chipper. All the time. It was like he could entirely ignore the natural inclination to sleep during the day.

But Charlie found, fairly quickly in fact, that Matteusz was nice. Genuinely nice and intelligent and curious. More mathematically inclined than Charlie was, but he still had things to say about literature. Far more intelligent things than his classmates said. Charlie could even withstand Matteusz’s tendency to lean on his shoulder whilst he read if it meant that he actually got to talk to someone about a book he liked. He was currently working his way through the extra reading list that he had been given for History while Matteusz had started on some Maths books.

“Do you find it hard to listen in class?” Matteusz asked him on the following Monday. They’d just been in History and Charlie had almost been sent out because he’d stopped listening and had almost fallen asleep.

“I don’t know how you manage to listen so attentively,” Charlie grumbled. “I shouldn’t be awake at that sort of hour, it’s just unreasonable…it’s like asking these humans to do their lessons at two in the morning.”

“I’m just better at hiding it,” Matteusz admitted. “I couldn’t even tell you what the lesson was about if you asked me, honestly.” It had been something to do with European economics in the eighteenth century, but Charlie couldn’t recall any details. He had studied it at home, but he doubted the same things had been covered in that lesson.

“Well, I don’t know how you do it,” Charlie said grumpily. “I couldn’t focus in half of these lessons even if I tried.” They were so dull most of the time, it was unreasonable. 

“Are you thinking of dropping out?” Matteusz asked. Charlie opened his mouth to protest, but Matteusz continued, “I don’t know why you’re here. You hate everyone and refuse to interact with the people you tolerate. You can’t concentrate in the lessons and you work far better at home.”

“If I drop out, I can’t take the exams without paying. And my parents won’t pay for ‘pointless human exams’.” Charlie sighed. “Besides, I’m hoping that things will get a little better the longer I stay here for.” He really did hope it would get better. He wanted to go to university and prove himself in the human world. He didn’t want to be isolated by a lack of common background from the majority of society. His parents were stuck and could only ever talk to other vampires simply because of this, and that meant they had to watch out for politics all the time.

“Hmm.” Matteusz leaned his head on Charlie’s shoulder again, and Charlie tensed up a little because he wasn’t reading and Matteusz only ever did this when he was reading. Now, the gesture seemed uncomfortably more than friendly.

He tried to move away. He didn’t like this at all. It wasn’t comfortable when it was like this, but he didn’t really want Matteusz to be annoyed with him. Why did he even care if Matteusz liked him, really? They were enemies. Once college was over, once Matteusz wasn’t the only person who remotely understood what he was feeling, they’d be enemies again and would never speak like this. “Must you be so affectionate? It is making me uncomfortable.” Matteusz was so unintelligent, it would probably work better to confront the problem directly rather than just moving away.

He received no answer, unless a shrug counted as an answer. It did not, in Charlie’s mind. It was a common gesture, far too common for the likes of him to be using. And really, Matteusz should not stoop to using it either. The only thing he got was Matteusz moving away, which felt like a victory in itself and he could finally relax a little. He decided not to take the argument any further or pick Matteusz up on his vague human gesture. There was no point to that kind of petty argument.

He pulled out some homework, figuring that it would be a better use of his time than anything Matteusz could offer him. Human history was far more interesting than listening to his supposed ‘friend’. He was still mostly asleep, but anyone could do a task as easy as this one. He was just waiting for his teachers to set an essay already, because this was boring. He didn’t want to match up opinions with different demographics of the time, that was just general recall and identification of key words. There was no depth to it.

He did his best to ignore Matteusz, who was still sitting next to him. He looked tired, and had sprawled out over half the bench. He kept yawning, too, which was exceedingly irritating. He was so informal it made Charlie’s skin crawl every time he saw it. If he could show Matteusz’s parents how he was behaving, he would be in so much trouble. They’d stop him from coming to college, they would probably withdraw him from political events for a while too. But if he did that, he didn’t doubt that Matteusz would do exactly the same in return. If he told Charlie’s parents about the discussion they’d had about his preferences, Charlie would be confined to the house for months. They both had blackmail material on each other, it seemed, and that was no use to anyone. Oh, how Charlie wished he had some way to get rid of Matteusz, even for a little while. He wanted peace and quiet at college.

Three students ran out of the building they had been in, practically shouting to each other as the receptionist watched them leave, a frown on her face. Maybe it was impossible to have peace and quiet here. “I dislike humans,” Matteusz mused, and Charlie smiled slightly. Maybe keeping him around wasn’t a terrible idea. He was still an absolute pain in the rear, the worst that Charlie had ever met, but he did make the occasional amusing comment. Which was more than he could say about a lot of humans.

“They are rather loud, aren’t they?” Charlie said, glaring at the three people who were still shouting together as they walked down the path. They clearly had no awareness of how they appeared to others.

“Finally, you agree with me on something.” Matteusz grinned at him, and Charlie rolled his eyes. Such jubilation just because they agreed on one blatantly obvious point was really not necessary. 

“A universal truth is no basis for a friendship like the one you desire, Matteusz,” he said, but he smiled back. He did sort of want to be friends with Matteusz, and the little common ground they had was very nice in justifying his feelings. Then again, he was still exceedingly annoying. So, it was a tough choice. But it was a choice that he would have to make eventually, there was no doubt about that. 

“And who is the one I desire?” Matteusz asked, and then he started laughing. Charlie rolled his eyes again. He was absolutely intolerable to start with, and now he was asking obvious questions with strange phrasing. “The joke works better when you look at me.”

“You are ridiculous,” he said flatly, and forced himself to turn away from Matteusz again. He really did hate such immature behaviour. And he absolutely refused to answer Matteusz’s question. 

“But I winked and moved my eyebrows, Charlie, it’s funny when you look at me, because then it’s obvious I am not flirting with you.” In that moment, Charlie felt slightly as if his heart had stopped (a human phrase, considering he was pretty much dead). He hadn’t even realised that it could be seen that Matteusz was flirting with him.

“You had better not have been flirting with me,” he said sharply. “Why would you even do that? You know how unwise it would be to attempt a relationship, and besides, I have absolutely no interest in you.” 

Matteusz just smiled. He was so infuriating, and he didn’t even respond to the question, which now just left Charlie wondering if Matteusz did want a relationship. Well, he could have their current one, which was an uneasy companionship in the face of adversity. That was all, and it would never be anything more than that.


End file.
